Re:Monster - Re:Vival

Day Two

Left turn, straight, right turn, kill skeleton, repeat, slightly change the order, repeat. That was my monotonous existence for what I could only assume was around 6-8 hours. No new skills and no new sights either. God, it was so boring.

The average skeletons were pretty easy to deal with, although there was one point where I bumped into a pair of the boney buggers. They tried to double team me but, well, they're literally brainless. Within two minutes they were tangled in each other's ribs and I could easily smash their heads with my foot.

It was at this point that I started thinking once again that I was in hell. Perhaps it was a personal hell. Monotonous, boring, without a focus. No ambitions, no goal. Just repetitive walking and murder. That wouldn't have even been that bad if there was something to gain but no, the murders were pointless. Survive. That was it. Maybe that was the point. How hell would break me. Make me give up. Make me wait for my second death.

With those depressing thoughts echoing in my empty head, I finally came across something different. There was a large, square-shaped hole in the wall that extended from the floor to the ceiling. As I got closer, I realised that the hole lead to a staircase. It went down quite a distance without any light. I'd have to take a leap of faith and hope it wasn't some sort of instant death trap.

Honestly, it got me a little excited. No matter what awaited me further down, at least it would be something different. With that in mind, I slowly, cautiously took step after step down into the darkness. When I got to the bottom, I was greeted by an unwelcome sight. It looked exactly the same as it did upstairs.

I was on the verge of screaming. I probably would have if I could. My boney jaw was opened wide and everything. I managed to calm myself down with the thought that, although the walls were the same, perhaps the enemies would be different, even slightly.

It was at that moment that I spotted it. A lone skeleton down the hall. It looked exactly the same as the others but I couldn't lose hope yet. I had to have faith that perhaps it would have a new skill I could take.

Excited at the thought, I activated [Rush] and charged at my new target. It noticed me, however it was too late. I slammed my body into it at full speed and forced it back into the stone wall behind it. It died on impact.

{Skill Gained: [Calligraphy]}

...What?

No, seriously. What the fuck? Why would a skeleton have a [Calligraphy] skill? What would a skeleton need a [Calligraphy] skill for? No matter how much I wracked my skull, I just couldn't wrap my bones around it. Seriously, what the fuck.

Well, moving on from that strange occurrence, it meant at the very least, that I'd be able to get some new skills from the walking corpses on that floor.

I was about to move on but I just couldn't shake how odd the skill was. I decided to look back at the skeleton in question, taking note of its weakness and the shape of its bones, even if they more mostly broken. From what I could tell, it was male, but the bones were brittle. Definitely not the kind of thing you'd expect to be walking around a place like that. If this really was hell, then maybe he got done in for forging signatures or something. Maybe tax fraud, I don't know. Either way, there was no way to know at that point so I moved on.

I ended up coming across a group of skeletons next. Four of them from what I could tell. I would have to be a little more careful with them.

I watched from behind a corner, studying their bodies and movements. There were three females and one male going by the bones. The male was the shortest of the group but his movements were more confident. Well, maybe not confident. More like... assured? Was it because he had his female companions around him? Was I looking at the corpse of a light novel protagonist?

Anyway, I shifted my attention to the first of the females. It was only a little taller than the male, though it's movements seemed far more timid than the others and it stayed close to the male, almost like it was relying on him to keep her safe, like some kind of younger sister.

Next was the female that stood at a relatively average height. It had its chest pushed forward confidently at all times and it's fists clenched and unclenched every-so-often. A martial artist perhaps? Or a street brawler at least.

The third and final female was the tallest and thinnest of the group. It gave off a kind of pompous aura. It was clear from its movements that it wasn't a close-ranged fighter. A gun or a whip would probably suit it quite well but since there weren't any around, I didn't think I'd have to worry about that one too much.

As for how I'd handle fighting them, I decided to try something simple and possibly stupid. I picked up a loose stone and tossed it past them. Just as I'd hoped, it pulled their attention towards that direction. I hadn't expected the small male to take the lead and check out the sound himself, but it left the other three open for attack.

I used [Rush] once again and charged out. I grabbed the mid-sized one and slammed her to the ground, shattering the back of her skull on the ground. Following up, I twisted my body to get behind the smaller one and grabbed ahold of her. In one, swift motion, I spun her around and thrust her into the wall, breaking her forehead into pieces as it hit the stone.

The tall one was no concern as I thought. It came at me with both arms reaching for me but all I had to do was duck out of the way and trip it. The fall handled the rest.

By that point, the little man had noticed what I'd done. I could feel a sense of anger coming from the expressionless skeleton. It's anger seemed to increase as time went by but since it didn't seem to want to make the first move, I decided to get on with the reason I took them out in the first place and used [Essence Extraction].

{Skills Gained: [Plant Analysis] [Sculpting] [Grapple]}

Well, I got one useful skill I guess. [Plant Analysis] could be useful at some point as well so it's not a total loss. Who knows, maybe even [Sculpting] would be useful in the future. Although that would be pretty far off in the future considering I was still stuck in a stone labyrinth.

It was after I finished going over my new skills that the small skeleton finally lashed out. It leapt at me but I avoided it with a step to the side. It was surprisingly quick for a skeleton and twisted around, attempting to backhand me. I stepped back onto my back foot to avoid it then stepped forward into his space, grabbing his skull with both hands and the [Grapple] skill before slamming my patella into his face.

I felt his skill crack under the weight of the blow but he didn't go down in one hit like the others. He struggled earnestly, trying to escape my grasp but I just followed through with a combo of knee strikes to the head while maintaining my grip on his skull.

He managed to grab my wrists but before he could do anything, I kicked his leg out from under him and slammed him onto the ground. His back hit the ground hard and his head followed soon after. I heard the crunch but he still tried to fight back against me. Mounting the small figure, I let go of his skull with one hand and picked up one of his friend's bones before beating him over the head with it mercilessly until he stopped moving.

{Skills Gained: [Relentless] [Determination] [Intelligence - Very Low (Weak)] [Leap]}

That explained why he didn't go down so easily. Also why he was a tiny bit more competent at fighting than any of the other skeletons I'd come across. Now I was intrigued. I wanted to keep going further down the rabbit hole. Just what kind of abilities could I find in this place?

The thought had me riled up in anticipation but I decided to spend a little more time on this floor to look for any more weaklings with useful skills. Never know when they would come in handy.